Antibodies are made by the immune system to fight infection. A COVID-19 antibody blood test will identify whether you may have had COVID-19. We will use the result of the test to help us better understand how many Next Steps participants may have been infected with the virus which causes COVID-19, whether they realised it at the time or not.
We don’t know yet if having antibodies gives someone long-lasting protection from the virus. The results of this study may be able to help guide public health policy and the government’s plan for its antibody testing strategy.
Other research studies in the UK also asked their participants to complete the same antibody test. Analysing the information from Next Steps, alongside these other studies, will give us a better understanding of how many people may have been infected with COVID-19 and why some people develop severe disease.
The deadline for signing up to take part in our COVID-19 antibody testing project has now passed. Thank you to everyone who agreed to take part.
We invited those who took part in at least one of our three recent COVID-19 surveys to take an antibody test.
Other research studies in the UK also asked their participants to complete the same antibody test. Analysing the information from Next Steps, alongside these other studies, will give us a better understanding of how many people may have been infected with COVID-19 and why some people develop severe disease.
The antibody test will be conducted in a research lab, and not an NHS clinical-grade lab and is not 100% accurate or reliable at an individual level. The results show whether or not you have COVID-19 antibodies but cannot give a completely reliable individual diagnosis of whether you have had the virus. It is not known whether having COVID-19 antibodies will prevent re-infection, so regardless of your test result you should continue to follow government guidelines on self-isolation and social distancing. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of your antibody test result.
No, do not attempt to reuse the test. It is a single-use disposable device which is not intended for multiple uses.
You should have received your results by now. If you can’t see anything in your spam folder, please email nextsteps@ucl.ac.uk.
This means your blood test did not show a clearly detectable level of certain antibodies against COVID-19 infection. This could be because:
Please be aware this antibody test is being carried out for research purposes only and only picks up certain antibodies against COVID-19. You should continue to follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolation as appropriate. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of your antibody test result.
This antibody test is not a measure of vaccine effectiveness. After vaccination it can take some time for antibodies to appear in the blood which can vary from individual to individual, so depending on when you had your vaccination it may be that they have not yet appeared. It is also important to remember that these tests aren’t 100% accurate. At the moment, we do not know if the vaccine will protect everyone from getting or transmitting COVID-19. By taking part in research and telling us about your vaccination, you are helping us to understand more. Whatever your test result, you should continue to follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolation as appropriate.
Your blood test showed a clearly detectable level of antibodies against the virus responsible for COVID-19. This means that you may have had or been exposed to COVID-19 in the past and your body has created antibodies. Please be aware this antibody test is being carried out for research purposes only and cannot be used to confirm a current or previous case of a COVID-19 infection.
You may also have clearly detectable antibodies after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. This antibody test is not a measure of vaccine effectiveness. You should continue to follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolation as appropriate.
In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of your antibody test result.
A positive test result could indicate that you may have had an immune response to the vaccine and have developed antibodies. However, this antibody test is not a measure of vaccine effectiveness and it’s also important to remember that these tests aren’t 100% accurate. It is also possible that the antibodies detected may be present because your body has mounted an antibody response after previous exposure to COVID-19. At the moment, we do not know if antibodies present in your blood will protect you from getting or transmitting COVID-19. Therefore, whatever your test result, you should continue to follow current government advice.
This means we do not know whether you have antibodies or not because the test did not work. This may have been because there was not enough blood in the tube you returned or because of a technical problem at the laboratory. Unfortunately, we are unable to send out additional blood collection kits for further testing. You should continue to follow government guidance on social distancing and self-isolation as appropriate. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of your antibody test result.
I previously tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies but this study’s result came back as ‘not clearly detectable’. What does this mean?
This difference in results may be because:
Please be aware that all participants should continue to follow guidelines on self-isolation and social distancing as appropriate, regardless of your antibody test result. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of antibody results.
This could be because:
You should continue to follow all guidance on self-isolation and social distancing as appropriate. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of antibody results.
This could be because:
You should continue to follow all guidance on self-isolation and social distancing as appropriate. In addition, we encourage all study members to have the COVID-19 vaccine when offered, regardless of antibody results.
This research is funded by the UK Research Institute as part of the National Core Studies, designed to understand and defeat COVID-19. The research is being conducted by the Next Steps team at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL.
We worked with a company called Thriva, who are a blood testing company. Your name and address were passed to Thriva so that they could send you a kit. They destroyed this information once your kit was posted. The blood test kit was returned to Thriva for analysis and the result of your test was provided to the Next Steps team. Thriva did not link your test result with your contact details.
You can find out more about Thriva on their website.
Thriva are contracted by the Department for Health and Social Care to conduct their antibody testing programme.
We also worked with Kantar Public, the organisation that conducted our COVID-19 Surveys on our behalf. Kantar Public emailed you to invite you to take part in this research and also sent you your test result.
Thriva and Kantar Public are contractually bound to UCL to keep your data safe and secure, and are accredited to data security standards.
The result of your test will be made securely available to researchers along with other information you have provided to the study, to look at the impact of coronavirus on people’s lives. Thriva will retain your test result along with a unique ID for 3 years after completion of the project. They will not retain any other information about you. We are also legally obliged to share the results of the antibody tests with Public Health England. Public Health England may share this information with equivalent bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The results shared with these organisations will not include any information that would allow you to be identified.
When we asked if you would be willing to take part in this project we told you that any blood left over after the antibody test has been conducted may be stored for future research. We can now confirm that this will NOT happen. Any blood which was left over after the antibody test was conducted was destroyed by the laboratory.
Your personal details, the results of your antibody test and your blood sample will be all be treated in the strictest confidence in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There is full information about this on our website.
University College London is the Data Controller and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Your test result and unique ID will be retained by Thriva for three years. No other information will be retained by Thriva. The Department for Health and Social Care are the Data Controller for the data that will be retained by Thriva.
You can contact us at nextsteps@ucl.ac.uk or 0800 977 4566.
Please note that when we asked if you would be willing to take part in this project we told you that any blood left over after the antibody test has been conducted may be stored for future research. We can now confirm that this will NOT happen. Any blood which was left over after the antibody test was conducted was destroyed by the laboratory. None of your blood will be stored for future use.
